No evidence of parental mental health influencing children’s academic achievement: a within-family study

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Children-of-siblings analysis: small associations between parental symptoms and lower reading and maths scores became non-significant when comparing cousins.
Parental symptoms measured near the child's test were less attenuated but still did not show a clinically meaningful direct effect on achievement.
Quasi-experimental family designs are essential to identify modifiable targets, though sample ascertainment differences limit broad generalisation from MoBa findings.

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2026 Jun 24. doi: 10.1007/s00787-026-03100-9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Children of parents with psychopathology generally perform less well in school than their peers. Parental symptoms might not, however, account for their lower achievement, as other familial factors might contribute. To examine the role of parental symptoms, we analyse data from 9,000 families in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Study (MoBa). Parents reported their symptoms of anxiety, depression, ADHD, eating disorders, and alcohol use disorder during pregnancy and during their child’s childhood. Children in 5th grade (aged 10) completed nationally-standardised tests of mathematics, reading comprehension, and English (as an additional language). Comparing children who are cousins (children-of-siblings design), we controlled for unmeasured factors shared among family members that confound the relationship between parental mental health and children’s academic achievement. We found small associations between greater parental symptoms and lower scores in reading and mathematics (- 0.060 ≤ β ≤ -0.013). However, these associations were no longer significant when comparing cousins whose parents differ in mental health. Results suggest that parental symptoms do not exert a direct, clinically meaningful effect on children’s academic achievement. Although non-significant, associations with parental symptoms measured close to the child’s academic test are less attenuated than those measured during pregnancy. Notably, comparison between the overall MoBa sample and the children-of-siblings samples suggests ascertainment differences that hinder strong generalisations. Our findings underscore the importance of quasi-experimental family designs in identifying modifiable targets in intergenerational health and education research. Supporting parental mental health is crucial but its direct effect on children’s achievement may be smaller than often thought.

PMID:42340381 | DOI:10.1007/s00787-026-03100-9

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